Tuesday, October 23, 2012

My Next Challenge: Are You Working to Your Strengths?

Last night on Twitter the bomb dropped. Yesterday was my last day of employment with VCE and shortly I will start as the Senior Director of Technical Marketing for Cloud at Citrix. I wanted to take some time to tell everyone about my journey to this role and how I believe my path could affect your career as well.

While the response was overwhelming and positive (I mean that, thank you everyone! I was floored at the response last evening on Twitter!), the number one question was “Why?”. The answer to this question lies in knowing your strengths and constantly working outside your comfort zone to challenge yourself to do better things in our industry.

Over the last 16 years (has it really been that long?!) my career path has been mainly trial and error, with sometimes mixed results. My “light bulb” moment actually came while I was recently doing some consulting for a company. The entire company is based around the Strengths Finder 2.0 book and exam. Everyone in the company is required to take it and their top 5 strengths are listed on the back of their badge. As part of my time there, I took the test and learned a good bit about myself. For those that are curious, my top 5 are Input – I love to gather input, Learner – I’m always learning, Achievement - I live by checklists and goals, Communication – I love to communicate, and Woo – Winning Others Over – I love to bring you to my side.

When I stepped back and thought about the portions of my role within VCE I really enjoyed I realized they often fit into one or more of my top 5 strengths. From there it was a matter of trying to find a role that would allow me to utilize these strengths as much as possible.

By accepting this new position at Citrix I have found a role that I believe firmly fits all of my strengths and I’m very excited for the next phase of my career. I challenge you to do the same. Are you working to your strengths? Do you naturally enjoy your core job functions?

In summary, go learn what makes you tick. Don’t wander around waiting for the next job to find you. I suggest taking the Strengths Finder 2.0 test. With that information, ask yourself are in the right role in your organization? If not, Fix it!

NOTE: I bet you didn’t expect this article to go there, did you? For those looking for gossip/dirt on why I left VCE or would like to read more into my departure, please don’t. VCE has treated me awesome over the last two years and we parted on very good terms. VCE is doing just fine and I believe will continue to lead the converged infrastructure market for years to come.